“The poems in Leisha Douglas’ Hand Fishing are as refreshing and startling as holding one’s hand in a cool stream to catch fish. Douglas captures the fleeting moments that shape a life, and that life’s intersection with other lives, plant, animal, and human. She writes, Every spring I plant the same seed packs/to grow a wildflower meadow./What comes up, always a surprise. She writes, If I knew you when you were ten,/would I know better how to comfort you? These poems reach beyond themselves. And they are here to stay.”
– Suzanne Cleary, author of The Odds (NY Quarterly Books 2025)
